It points to the need to ensure an earlier and more structured involvement of regional and local authorities in the European Semester, the yearly cycle of economic policy coordination within the European Union which sets out general economic priorities for the EU and provides Member States with policy guidance.
The resolution underlines that more than half of the 2016 Country-specific Recommendations (CSRs), addressed to 26 countries, are territory-related, which means that they are linked to challenges that concern some regions or cities more than others, and/or that their implementation relies on sub-national levels of government. The CoR therefore intends to propose a Code of Conduct for the involvement of the local and regional authorities in the European Semester.
This proposal was anticipated the day before in the European Parliament's ECON committee when voting the report by Alfred Sant (S&D/MT) on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities. The ECON members indeed adopted the following: "CSRs should be clearly articulated around well-defined and structured priorities at European level, involving national parliaments, regional and local authorities where appropriate…; delivery on the Country-specific Recommendations might improve with the active participation of local and regional authorities and to this aim, supports the proposal of a code of conduct for the involvement of the local and regional authorities in the European Semester as suggested by the Committee of the Regions".
Moreover, while welcoming the first positive results of the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the CoR calls for improving its additionality and geographical balance, and for encouraging the development of regional investment strategies and the use of investment platforms to make sure that all regions and also smaller regions and municipalities can benefit from it.
The CoR also reiterates its opposition to macroeconomic conditionality in the implementation of the Cohesion Policy, as this would penalise cities and regions as a result of the Member State's failure to comply with their obligations under the Stability and Growth Pact.
Likewise, the CoR confirms its call to exclude national co-financing of investments co-financed by the European Union under partnership agreements and, in this context, asks that investment made by local and regional authorities in the context of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund be excluded from the EU countries’ budget deficit and debt calculations.
Last but not least, the CoR maintains that the Commission should consider proposing a fiscal capacity for the Eurozone to implement anti-cyclical policies and accelerate the recovery, and announces that it will adopt in the coming months an opinion on this issue.
The PES Group will continue to closely follow up its requests with Alfred Sant (S&D, Malta) whose report is due for adoption in the EP's October II plenary session.
